Method of starting electric gas or vapor devices.



PATENTED NOV. 21, 1905.

P. G. HEWITT.

METHOD OF STARTING ELEGTRIO GAS 0R VAPOR DEVICES.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 24,1903.

mvirnn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PETER COOPER HEWITT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO COOPER HEWITT ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

METHOD OF STARTING ELECTRIC GAQ OR VAPOR DEVICES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 21, 1905.

Application filed November 24, 1908. Serial No. 182,443.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, PETER COOPER HEWITT, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Starting Electric Gas or Vapor Devices, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the class of electrical apparatus in which electric currents are caused to traverse an inclosed gas or vapor. In other applications and in a number of patents I have described apparatus of this general character, the same being designed for use in some instances for electric-lighting purposes and in other instances for obtaining unidirectional currents from alternating currents. In some forms of this apparatus one or more of the electrodes consists of a small quantity of mercury and the inclosed gas or vapor consists of vaporized or volatilized mercury. Generally speaking, a convenient way for causing an initial flow of current through the apparatus has been to impress a higher electrical potential than is required to maintain the devices in a conductive condition when once started. I

I have devised various means for conveniently securing the initial-current flow, and my present invention aims to provide a new solution of the same problem. In this instance I provide simple and efiective means for forming an initial closed circuit between two electrodes of difierent potential in the apparatus, whereby a flow of current having the normal operating potential is readily established through the closed circuit, and upon the interruption of this circuit the current flows through the gas or vapor. In one form of starting device made in accordance with the present invention I cause a thin stream of mercury to be ejected from one electrode into contact with the other and then permit the stream to be disintegrated by gravity, whereby the conducting-stream, through which the initial currenthas been caused to flow, is interrupted, and the current then traverses the currentpath between the electrodes.

In another embodiment of my invention the mercury is initially restrained from falling in a stream to the lower electrode, and the act of starting consists in automatically releasing the restrained mercury to allow a How from the upper to the lower electrode for starting purposes.

The means which I contemplate employing for causing the ejection or squirting of a stream of mercury as above described are in the nature of an electromagnetically-operated syringe, which will force a portion of the lower mercury electrode upward and into contact with the other electrode. Similar means may be employed for releasing the mercury in the second form of apparatus described above; but these means may be varied, and it is also true that various other means may be provided for causing a closed circuit to be formed between the electrodes, one of which is illustrated and described in the present application. After the electromagnetic devices have done their work they may be automatically cut out of the circuit or maybe left in the circuit, if de sired.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which-- Figure 1 is a vertical section of anapparatus embodying my invention, and Figs. 2 and 3 are similar views of modified forms of apparatus.

Referring to the first figure of the drawings, 1 represents the inclosing chamber of the device, which is here represented as an electric lamp, although it will be understood that the invention is applicable to electric converters or current-rectifiers. The positive electrode is here shown at 2 as-consisting of a cup of metal-such, for instance, as iron which is attached to a leading-in wire 3, hermetically sealed in the walls of the chamber. The negative electrode 4: consists in this instance of a quantity of mercury. The electrode 4 is contained within a chamber at the lower end of the lamp, at the bottom of which chamber is formed a cylinder or socket 6,

which will usually be formed in one piece, with the glass constituting the container. Above the cylinder 6 is located an armature 5, of soft iron. This armature is hereshown as annular in form and as coated with glass or other suitable material. The armature floats in the mercury, constituting the negative electrode of the apparatus. It may be prevented from rising above a predetermined point by means of inwardly-projecting-lugs 18 18, formed on the inner walls of the device.

The glass coating of the armature is provided with an extension 7, adapted to fit fairly l closely within the cylinder or socket 6. Through the armature and the glass covering the same extends a narrow slit or perforation 8. The glass surrounding the armature terminates at the top in a nozzle 9.

Outside the chamber containing the negative electrode is located an actuating-coil 10, its location being such that when the coil is energized it will draw the armature 5 downward. When the current is turned on by closing the line circuit, the coil is vitalized, draws the armature quickly downward, and thereby causes the projection or extension 7 to enter the socket or cylinder 6, whereupon a thin stream of mercury is forced upward through the perforation 8 and is carried into contact with the electrode 2, thus completing a conducting-circuit between the electrodes.

The negative electrode 4: is connected to line through a leading-in wire 11, and accordingly the described closure of the circuit inside the apparatus completes the line-circuit, as shown, through the line-wire 12, leading to the leading-in wire 3, the positive electrode 2, the stream of mercury, the negative electrode 4, the leading-in wire 11, and the wire 18. The latter wire may include a coil 15, having an armature 16, which is connected with the movable parts 17 of an electric switch 19. Accordingly when the described circuit is completed the coil 10 is cut out by the automatic opening of the switch 19 through the action of the coil 15. If the original circuit of the coil 10 is thus broken, the armature 5 would be free to rise to its original position against the lugs 18, under which circumstances the current may pass around the armature and through the spaces between the lugs 18; but it will be understood that any convenient well-known means for placing the coil 10 in series relation to the lamp may be employed, so that the armature will be held within the col When the stream of mercury falls away from the positive electrode 2 by the action of gravity, it is found that the current will flow through the vapor, so that the action described in the foregoing part of the specification is sulficient to start the lamp or other device into operation, after which the device will continue to operate under the influence of the current.

By coating the iron forming the armature with glass any gases which may be occluded in the iron will be prevented from escaping into the chamber, thus simplifying the manufacture of the device and preventing it from becoming injured by the presence of deleterious gases. The general method of exhausting the lamp and other characteristics to be observed in the manufacture are described in certain patents issued to me September 17, 1901.

In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 2 the mercury electrode is located near the top of the lamp and the iron electrode at the bottom. The armature 20 of the coil 10 is here connected with a valve-stem joined to a valve 21. The latter controls the mouth of an opening or channel 22 leading from the receptacle where the mercury is held into the main lamp-chamber. When the coil 10 is energized, the valve is lifted and a stream of mercury flows down upon the positive electrode 2. In order to provide electrical continuity all the way from the positive electrode to the negative, I may place at the mouth of the channel 22 a strip 23 of conducting material leading from the channel back to the body of mercury, as illustrated. It is clear that the opening of the channel, as described, will allow a stream of mercury to fall and that by virtue of the strip 23 of conducting material there will be a continuous conducting-path from one electrode to the other, formed in part by the stream of mercury and in part by the conducting-strip.

The connections of the conductors leading to the coil 10 may be similar to those shown in Fig. l for cutting out the coil when current commences to flow through the lamp so that the valve may close.

Fig. 3 illustrates an organization in which the positive electrode 2 at the top of the apparatus is connected by a good conductor 24: with a body of mercury in a specially-constructed chamber 25. From this chamber leads a channel 22, as before, into the main container. When the mercury is spilt over from the chamber 25 down to the lower electrode 1, a complete path between the two electrodes is formed partly by the stream of mercury and partly by the conductor 2 1.

In both organizations illustrated by Figs. 2 and 3 current will pass through the vapor between the two electrodes as soon as the stream of mercury falls apart by gravity. The organizations shown in this figure may be provided with devices for cutting out the coil 10, as illustrated in Fig. 1. As soon as the stream of mercury ceases to flow or breaks apart a current will be established between the nega tive electrode at and the main positive electrode 2.

In a divisional application, Serial No. 229,055, filed by me on the 19th day of October, 1904, claims are made upon certain features of the apparatus described herein, and in another divisional application, filed July 1, 1905, Serial No. 267,983, claims are made upon features more particularly disclosed in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings.

I claim as my invention 1. The method of starting a gas or vapor electric device having electrodes,which consist in electromagnetically projecting a stream of fluid from one electrode into contact with another electrode and causing such stream to separate whereby conduction is establishedfirst through the stream of fluid and afterward through a vapor-path.

2. The method of starting and operating a gas or vapor device having electrodes, which consists in forcibly projecting a stream of conducting fluid from one electrode into contact with another electrode thus forming a cond ucting-path from one electrode to the other, afterward interrupting said stream and establishing a conducting-circuit through a vaporpath.

3. In an apparatus comprising a gas or vapor electric device, power-developing means looated outside the same and jet-projecting means inside the same, the method of starting the apparatus, which consists in producing a jet of conducting fluid inside the apparatus and utilizing the natural separation of the said jet for starting current through a vaporpath.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 9th day of November, A. D. 1903.

PETER COOPER HEWITT.

Witnesses:

WM. H. GAPEL, GEORGE H. STooKBRIDeE. 

